The
Our Lady of Grace Hospital at Breman Asikuma in the Cape Coast Archdiocese, won
the maiden Guardian of Life Award for Excellence in Quality Improvement with
their ‘Paulina Bottle’ innovation targeted at reducing Perinatal Mortality.
The
award, the highest for individuals and institutions within the National
Catholic Health Service (NCHS), was conferred on the hospital at the just ended
17th Annual Conference of the NCHS held at Takoradi, Western Region.
To
address the increasing trend of the perinatal mortalities at the hospital, the
facility adopted the Quality Improvement (QI) approach by co-opting major
stakeholders including doctors, nurses as well as other health personnel and
the community members to tackle the challenge.
The
project was aimed at reducing the perinatal death rate of 31.1 per 1000 live
births to 23.8 at the hospital, which served as the major referral facility for
Ajumako District Hospital, Brakwa Health Centre, Odoben Health Centre and
Jambra CHPS.
With
appropriate tools, the QI team including Madam Paulina Esuman, Nurse Manager of
the Hospital, Dr. Benedict Owusu Boateng, Obstetrics and Gynecology Specialist
and Dr. Francis Bentil, General Surgeon and Medical Superintendent of the
Hospital, identified the root causes of the challenge and subsequently
introduced high level change ideas to track the changes in the system.
The
facility also introduced the change idea of improving the referral system by
giving prompt feedback on WhatsApp platform, as well as through training of
staff at the Our Lady of Grace Hospital and midwives at Ajumako in Standard
Operating Guidelines and Emergency Obstetrics Care among others.
The
innovation nicknamed the ‘Paulina Bottle’ where unlettered pregnant women in
the area were encouraged to appreciate the fetal kicks taught at regular
antenatal clinics, by counting the peddles in the bottle each time they
experienced a fetal kick.
After
the introduction of the ‘Paulina Bottle’ intervention, the mid-year data of
still births at the Hospital decreased by 53.5%, that is from 43 in 2018 to 20
in 2019.
The
Guardian of Life Award was instituted by the Ghana Catholic Bishops’
Conference, to recognise deserving recipients who have shown exceptional
innovation with significant impact on saving lives.
